Previous work relating to synthesis of nucleic acid nanostructures (or microstructures) involved a “DNA origami” approach in which a naturally occurring “scaffold” DNA several kilobases in length is folded into a structure through the use of a plurality of helper strands that each hybridize to two, three or more non-contiguous regions of the scaffold DNA. Such folding approaches are limited, in part, by the ability to obtain scaffolds other than that currently in use (i.e., M13mp18 viral genome DNA, about 7 kilobases in length). They are also limited in their versatility since each nucleic acid structure requires a specific design and set of helper strands in order to generate the necessary folding of the scaffold DNA.
Still earlier work involved the use of nucleic acid “tile” monomers, each made up of 5 single stranded oligonucleotides, having a relatively rigid core structure and flanking sequences that hybridized to other monomers in order to form nucleic acid structures. The most complex structure produced using these tile monomers was a 4 by 4 square structure.
More recent work involved the use of subsets of identical single stranded oligonucleotides to form DNA tubes of particular circumferences. This work was limited by its ability to form only a few types of structures, namely ribbons and tubes. Moreover, the end user could not exert much control over the size of such structures based on the nature of the single stranded oligonucleotides used to generate the structures.